Tobacco Control Advocates Call For DOH To Ensure That Cigarette Packs Sold In The Philippines Are Plastered With Graphic Warnings Conveying The Health Risks Associated With Smoking

A couple of groups advocating for tobacco control initiates, HealthJustice Philippines and Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA), are calling upon the Department of Health (DOH) to ensure that all tobacco products sold in the Philippines are emblazoned with graphic health warnings depicting the negative effects smoking can have on the human body.

By their account, there’s no reason why tobacco companies should fail to comply with the graphic health warnings law imposed on tobacco products by the DOH. Subsequently, the two tobacco control groups are calling on the DOH to ensure that such products carry the warnings, which were to be issued and enforced by the department on March 3, 2016.

Ulysses Dorotheo, the director for framework convention for tobacco control at SEATCA, was quoted by Inquirer.net as having said:

“There should be no excuse for tobacco companies not to comply with this. We call on the DOH to ensure that all tobacco products carry the new set of warnings it prescribed.”

By Dorotheo’s account, the Bureau of Internal Revenue should ensure that excise tax stamps are only applied to tobacco products that meet the graphic warning guidelines and for those who fail to comply, the government should fine or prosecute them.

The graphic health warnings that tobacco companies are legally required to paste on their tobacco products are only intended to be valid for two years at a time, after which point they’re supposed to be updated in a bid to prevent consumers from becoming accustomed to the images.

The images themselves are essentially gruesome images depicting human patients that have suffered greatly from the negative effects of smoking.

Violator Consequences

Those who fail to comply with the graphic health warnings law (RA 10643) are subject to fines. For each instance of import and export of non-compliant products constitutes a single offense, for which the violator is subject to a P100,000 fine per day.

Those who sell such non-compliant products are subject to a P10,000 to P100,000 fine in addition to one-year in prison.

Importers, manufacturers, and distributors that display tobacco materials without the required graphic health warnings are subject to a P500,000 to P2,000,000 fine as well as two-years in prison.